John Kilroy consolidates at the top of the Melges 32 Miami Championship leaderboard

Saturday March 5th 2011, Author: Joy Dunnigan, Location: United StatesThree additional races were completed on the second day of the 2011 Melges 32 Miami Championship, hosted by Coconut Grove Sailing Club, sponsored by Melges Performance Sailboats further confirming the strength and intense momentum possessed by John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti (Nathan Wilmot, tactician). With three more heats complete, a worst-race discard went into effect shaking up the results standing with the exception of the first place position, occupied by Kilroy. He holds the lead by nine points.

"Any lead in this fleet, can never be big enough." said Kilroy post racing. "It was kind of hard for us to cover everyone today, but it was also quite nice to see Jason up there winning."

In second overall is Ryan DeVos on Volpe (Ed Baird, tactician) and in third, is Jason Carroll on Argo (Charlie Ogletree, tactician).

Stunning, classic Miami racing conditions prevailed all day long - the breeze ranged 18-23 knots all day long, under sunny blue skies. The sea state on the other hand was again, pretty harsh. Large, lumpy, choppy waters greeted the fleet for the pre-start and stuck around throughout the afternoon. Never once did it let up.

Going into today's racing Kilroy led the pack by three, Lanfranco Cirillo on Fantastica (Vasco Vascotto, tactician) was second and tied with equal points third and fourth, a DeVos family affair consisted of Ryan, and his cousin Dalton DeVos on Delta respectively.

Kilroy brought only total domination in race one of the day. He punched out on the left early for pressure, rounded the top mark in first and never looked back. From start to finish, Kilroy's team was ultra-fast. The young Ryan DeVos gave it his all to chase Kilroy down, but his best efforts just weren't enough leaving him to settle for second. Kip Meadows on roXanne (Andy Horton, tactician) had a great day taking third.

The second race deemed Jason Carroll on Argo in command of the fleet at the top mark. Phil Lotz's Arethusa was in hot pursuit successfully overtaking the lead at the gate. Back upwind, Carroll found the gear required to regain first place, this time with a big lead at the top mark, placing him several boat lengths ahead of the fleet. Lotz, Kilroy, Meadows and Hughes contested downwind with Kilroy securing second, Meadows took home a photo finish pulling up for third over Lotz, less than a boat length as the two crossed the line.

Carroll continued his winning streak winning the final race of the day. Kilroy sailed another solid race to take second and Rod Jabin on Ramrod (Chris Larson, tactician) hammered out a great race for third.

"I can't say enough about my crew coming together today, and just doing a great job hustling the boat around the course all day long." said an ecstatic Carroll. "I like it when it's windy, it's true. The conditions today gave us plenty to work with. If there were any struggles, it was getting off the line. We didn't have exactly the best starts. We were able to hang with the lead pack today, for a minute or so, but then we found ourselves bailing out of those packs."

"What we focused on most, was getting out front, getting away from the other boats so we could do our own thing. This is such a great fleet, it feels so good to have a couple of really good races." concluded Carroll.

Sunday will be the final day of racing with two more races.

At 5 o'clock sharp, Samba Pa Ti hosted a beer party that included 'a big surprise'. The Samba team was pretty tight lipped about exactly what all the hype was about, but when a fabulous chorus line of Samba dancers appeared (with musicians in tow), step-for-step, making their way down the dock through crowds of sailors everyone knew it was Samba time! Great fun, partying and beer flowed as the dancers enticed everyone to dance and party on the docks - Miami style! A very special thanks to Kilroy and team for such a great party and experience.